Christmas Eve is a day full of anticipation, festive cheer, and excitable children. Christmas Eve bedtime, however, can sometimes be, shall we say, a little fraught – the excitement often bubbling over into exhaustion, and tears!

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Create some fun family traditions and your Christmas Eve can go from fraught to frivolous in the blink of an eye. 

Have a games night

Christmas is all about spending time together as a family and an afternoon of playing family games is the perfect way to kick off the festivities before the excitement of the big day becomes a bit too much for little ones. 

Make a gingerbread house

The scent of gingerbread and cinnamon is synonymous with Christmas and making a gingerbread house on Christmas Eve morning to be eaten in the evening whilst watching a Christmas film is our idea of Christmas Eve heaven. 

Create a Christmas Eve box

Create a Christmas Eve box with matching Christmas pyjamas, a game to play in the afternoon, some sweet treats, a Christmas activity like colouring in, and a Christmas book to read before bedtime. The promise of a book at bedtime will help signal it’s time for bed, and Santa is on his way. 

Decorate the tree together

If you can hold out long enough, decorating the tree together can be a fun family tradition for Christmas Eve. Each family member gets to choose their own special Christmas tree decoration and give it pride of place on the tree. 

Go for a woodland walk

Christmas Eve is the best time to get out and about in nature. Head to the woods for some fresh air and let the little ones burn off the extra excitable energy! 

Collect pine cones, holly and other festive foliage to decorate the dining table. 

Watch a festive film

Start to wind down by watching a festive film together as a family, choose a classic like The Snowman for ultimate nostalgia for you too!

Order a Christmas Eve takeaway

Order a takeaway for Christmas Eve and save the cooking (and washing up) for Christmas Day. Serve it buffet style and let everyone dig in, a la Home Alone! 

Get Santa ready

Just before bedtime, have the kids set up a mince pie and a glass of milk- or sherry for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph. Place it by the tree with a handwritten note. 

Christmas is about spending time with loved ones, and we love our Christmas Eve traditions- we’d love to hear what your family traditions are.